


Two Men and a Dragon (and More)

by lost_in_a_good_book



Category: Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: Bromance, Competency, Domestic Fluff, Fatherhood, Fluff and Humor, Found Family, Gen, Post-Canon, Post-Series, Tharkay helps Will Laurence again, background William Laurence/Jane Roland, funny!WillLaurence, minor UST
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 07:23:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8966725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_in_a_good_book/pseuds/lost_in_a_good_book
Summary: Laurence and Tharkay’s new living arrangement is tested when Jane Roland asks for help with a matter of some importance. Temeraire, of course, insists on being involved. And Laurence’s sense of humor returns in unexpected ways.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [novembersmith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/novembersmith/gifts), [yunitsa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yunitsa/gifts).



> A Yuletide Treat.

_O Dover is a fine town with ships about the bay_  
_It's fain and very fain to be there myself today_  
_I'm wishing in my heart I was far away from here_  
_Sitting in a clearing and talking with my dear_

  


“Dear fellow, would you do something for me?” Jane asked. “Well, three things, really?” Laurence, satiated and half asleep, nevertheless murmured gallantly, “Of course; I am always most happy to oblige you.”

Jane rolled over and put her chin on his chest, chuckling but looking at him intently. “Perhaps you should hear what they are before you agree,” she said. “The first thing is, would you give me a baby?”

Laurence sat up as suddenly as if he’d heard a cry of “Fire!” aboard ship, which unceremoniously deposited Jane back onto the mattress. He stared at her and blurted out the first thing that came to his mind: “But are you not too old for that?” Jane responded, in a somewhat ominous tone, “And just how old do you think me to be?”

Laurence momentarily wondered if he was having a bad dream, because he was both naked and completely unsure of what to say next to keep off the rocks of Jane’s displeasure. “Er,” he said, “I thought that you were, em…” He took a deep breath, then rushed through the rest of his answer: “…perhaps-a-few-years older-than-I-am?” He added, “For you were a captain at the Battle of the Nile, and I was only a lieutenant at the time!”

His lover glared at him and retorted, “Have you forgotten that in the Corps, we begin training at seven? Unlike some Navy fellows who did not start serving until they were twelve!” She relented with a snort, however, and continued, “I am two years younger than you. And we Rolands often have children at this age!”

He lay back down on the bed so he could look squarely at her. “You know, I hope, that I trust your judgment, Jane. But I think that I had better hear the rest of your requests, and your reasons, before I can agree to the first thing,” he said seriously.

\------

Dull from too little sleep, Laurence asked the courier to take an indirect route home, for he needed time to work out his approach to Temeraire. It was topsy-turvy, essentially having to propose to one’s dragon rather than to the woman one loved. But given that Laurence’s life had been generally upside down for most of the last ten years, the idea almost seemed normal to him.

Jane had at last convinced him to agree to her unorthodox proposals by pointing out that, if they succeeded, Laurence would have fulfilled his obligation to provide for Temeraire’s future companionship. What was more, her plan would fulfill it in a way that both the dragon – and he – could accept. Laurence was glad that if they proceeded, Jane would be the one to explain her own reasons for this to her daughter. That conversation with Emily undoubtedly would be quite spirited.

Of course, even assuming that Temeraire consented, Laurence still had to convince Tharkay. At least he thought he could predict his dragon’s initial reaction.

\------

Laurence’s recollection of the year that followed was somewhat hazy, but certain moments he would never forget.

\------

“Do I understand this correctly, Laurence?” his dragon asked, ticking off the points with his talons. “You and Jane will try to make an egg. If you succeed, you and Jane will marry. In either case, Jane still will live in London and you will still live here with me, except when you are in London with me. Then if there is an egg, after it hatches the baby human will live here with us, with visits from Jane, or we may take it to London or Dover to visit her.”

“If it is a girl baby, eventually she will serve on a Longwing, even if Emily stays on Excidium rather than going to Gibraltar with Demane,” Temeraire continued. “And if it is a boy baby, he will accompany me when he is old enough. And whichever it is, you and Jane will try for another egg to have whichever kind you did not have the first time. Did I miss anything?”

Laurence thought wryly that Temeraire had grasped the plans far more quickly than he had. “No, except that we will do this only if you agree to it, my dear,” he replied. “Perhaps you could consider a baby to be part of your crew?”

\------

“Did I understand you correctly, Will?” his friend asked, refilling their brandy glasses. Tharkay added, “If so, I advise that we lay in a better stock of spirits.”

Laurence smiled weakly and asked, “Then you are not opposed to this idea, Tenzing? For I fear I will need your help with Temeraire and with at least the first child if this is to succeed.”

Tharkay considered for a few moments, swirling the amber liquid in his snifter. He answered drily, “It has been over a year since you led me into one peril after another in pursuit of Temeraire’s offspring. While I do appreciate the restful qualities of our quiet country existence, both of us have been accustomed to lead somewhat more active lives. This plan would let us face a new challenge while staying more or less in one place for a change. And I do owe her Grace a favor.”

\------

About a month later: “O, damnation!” Jane cried, bolting out of bed and reaching the basin just before she started to retch. Laurence jumped up and went to her side, concerned that she was ill. Jane wiped her mouth, then lowered herself into a chair.

Gently pushing a damp strand of her hair off her forehead, Laurence asked, “What can I do for you, dearest?”

She gave him a small but rather mischievous smile and replied, “What you can do, you have already done, Will.” He frowned in puzzlement, but Jane’s smile grew until he finally understood; then he dropped to his knees beside her and took her in his arms.

_Well, if it be a girl, she shall lead an aerial wing_  
_And if it be a boy, he shall also serve the King_  
_With a harness and bright boots and a handsome jacket green_  
_They'll fly on dragon back, is their parents’ fondest dream_

\------

The next few weeks passed in a blur for Laurence. His mother and Jane were in constant consultation about the arrangements. He had seen military campaigns planned in far less detail.

He did not quite believe what was happening until he found himself in the amphitheatre at Loch Laggan, Tharkay at his side, in front of the officiant for the marriage service: Celeretas, reinstated, had made time in the training schedule so that he could perform the ceremony.

As they waited for the bride, Tharkay leaned over to Laurence and whispered, “I understand that the senior captains have taken bets on whether Jane will wear a dress or her uniform.”

\------

“Laurence, look!” Temeraire greeted him excitedly upon the groom’s return from a brief honeymoon at Tharkay’s Scottish estate. “Perscitia found this book for us. It is called ‘What to Expect When You are Increasing’ and it has the most interesting illustrations!” Laurence picked up the book and opened it at random; turning scarlet, he hurriedly closed it on the rather disconcerting diagram of the birthing process.

\------

“I can make a windproof shelter from a small tarpaulin and a few sticks. Is it right to chastise me because I cannot smoothly paint the walls of a nursery?” Tharkay asked peevishly.

Laurence merely smiled and tried to take a rag to Tharkay’s face to remove a streak, but met resistance in the form of a brush across his brow. After a shocked pause, Laurence deployed the nearest weapon, which was a bucket of light-blue paint. Tharkay emerged from the attack spluttering; when he drew breath to speak, he inhaled a mouthful of paint.

“You look like one of the ancient Picts!” Laurence exclaimed in delight. Tharkay coughed up a blue globule, then enquired coolly, “They were a warrior race, I believe?” before he charged at Laurence.

When he peered into the room, Temeraire found them sprawled on the floor in opposite corners, panting, disheveled, and soaked. “Gentlemen!” the dragon exclaimed in his best version of his handler’s commanding tones. “If you cannot be trusted to paint a room without making a mess of it, how can you be trusted with our hatchling? I shall report this to Jane!” Laurence groaned at being caught playing like a boy. In penance, he sacrificed his neckcloth to wiping the worst of the stains from his clothing,

\------

Laurence surveyed the tall stacks of breechcloths and asked, “Tenzing, are you sure you interpreted Jane’s list correctly? How could we possibly ever need all of these?” Tharkay could only shrug, being equally at sea.

\------

“Hssst, Laurence!” he heard dimly; Laurence turned in his bedroll and sank back into slumber. “Laurence, wake up!” he heard again. He groaned and put his pillow over his head. The nation was at peace; even when visiting the London covert, a man should be allowed to sleep through the night, he thought groggily. “Oh, very well,“ said the deep voice from overhead. The next Laurence knew, he was off the ground and in draconic foreclaws, bedroll and all: then he found himself dropped quite unceremoniously into the watering trough.

Spluttering and trying to extricate himself from the now-sodden bedding, he shouted, “What in heaven’s name, Temeraire?!”

His torturer explained politely, “You did not awaken after my first two attempts. And it is time – a courier just arrived from Dover!” At this news, Laurence fell out of the trough, still entangled in his bedroll.

A pair of human hands reached down, helping him out of the bedding and onto his feet. “Thank you, Hollin,” Laurence said. “Is my wife all right?” Beaming, the courier captain replied, “Her Grace sends word that she is doing well, Admiral, but that you should make for Dover without a moment’s delay!”

While Laurence hurriedly dressed, he asked, “Would you please have a message sent to Capt. Tharkay at the estate to let him know, Hollin?” The man nodded his assent, chuckling for some reason. Laurence later found, when he passed a mirror in the Dover house, that his clothes were in a state of most unusual disorder. Even his neckcloth was askew.

\------

The physician kept moving behind Laurence to stay out of Jane’s line of sight. Several pieces of broken crockery attested to the wisdom of that approach as she swore again at the beleaguered man. It did not help anyone’s nerves that Excidium and Temeraire were jostling for place at the bedroom window, vying for the best view of the egg’s arrival.

\------

_A courier came today, but somehow I cannot speak_  
_A surprised and happy tear is a-rolling down my cheek_  
_The letter says there’s someone you've been waiting for to see_  
_With dancing bright blue eyes, looking up from off my knee_

_But the letter never said if they had a boy or girl_  
_Got me so confused that my mind is all a whirl_  
_So I'm riding to the covert and will quickly turn around_  
_And take the fastest flight that to Dover town is bound_

\------

“Would you like to hold him?” Laurence asked. Tharkay tried to demur, but he only managed to get out “Not at – ” before Laurence cheerfully interrupted him with “Of course you would; everyone wants to hold a baby! Please feel at liberty to pick him up, Tenzing.”

Tharkay’s sudden attack of nerves was not helped by Temeraire’s jealous eye at the window, nor by Jane’s rather doubtful expression from where she sat in the bed. He shot Laurence a look that promised retribution, then bent and hoisted the baby into the air by its armpits. Tharkay heard a stifled chuckle from Jane, but manfully ignored it and said, “I believe he has your eyes, Will.” Turning to Jane, he added blandly, “And, fortunately, it seems he will have Her Grace’s nose.” Jane abruptly disappeared beneath the bedclothes, from which muffled snorting sounds began to emanate. Laurence looked down his rather long and bony aristocratic nose at his friend.

With a superiority born of one day’s experience as a father, Laurence retorted, “At least I know how to hold a baby properly! Here ….” He took his son and gave him back to Tharkay, adjusting his friend’s arms around the boy. “That is much better. Remember that you must always support the head. Tenzing, you are not nervous, are you?”

Emerging from the bedclothes, Jane warned, “Tharkay, after what I have been through for the past nine months, if you drop my son I will cheerfully run you through!” as she took in the scene. “Why ever would I be nervous, Will?” Tharkay enquired, somewhat breathlessly, as the boy wriggled in his arms.

\------

“Laurence, whatever is that smell?” Temeraire asked from his resting place in the garden. For some reason, Tharkay found that question inordinately humorous. Laurence glared at him over the baby’s head and the newly soaked, so-called burping cloth. “Perhaps think of it as a new badge of rank?” Tharkay suggested.

\------

“I will not roll over on him in my sleep!” Temeraire exclaimed indignantly as their party settled in for the night on their slow journey north with the baby. “I did not squash the Turkish eggs I carried, or Kulingile’s either. And dragon eggs do not even yell the way our hatchling does when it’s squeezed – I certainly would awaken!”

“As would every human within a mile,” Tharkay muttered, not entirely under his breath.

Jane grinned and fished something out of her bag. She solemnly presented both men with wads of cotton for their ears. “One of you should take the first watch, gentlemen,” she said. “I will take the second.”

\------

“Now, Betsy,” Jane asked, “What experience have you had caring for babies?”

As the candidate for the position of wet nurse started to reply, Laurence leaned over to Tharkay and asked, “Tenzing, may I have a word with you outside?” Tharkay raised an eyebrow but followed Laurence into the hallway, closing the door behind them.

Laurence, his face gone rather pink, drew Tharkay farther away from the door before he whispered fiercely, “Stop staring at the girl’s, em – endowment, Tenzing!”

Tharkay raised his other eyebrow and replied, “I am not staring, merely evaluating her qualifications for the job, as a sensible employer should do. And you are making her nervous by staring over her head when you address her!”

\------

“Will, your wife’s writing is the most wretched scrawl,” Tharkay commented as they tried to decipher Jane’s orders about taking care of the boy after she departed. “Does that say ‘Feed every two hours’ or ‘Breed every two hours’?” Already they were so tired that Tharkay chuckled quite out loud at his own witticism. Laurence only sighed.

\------

“You do realize, Will,” Tharkay enquired as he read the schedule that Laurence had put up in the kitchen, “I have never been terribly fond of structure?”

Laurence looked up from the scrubbing board, on which he was trying to clean yet another stained cloth, and emitted a noise almost like a growl.

\------

“That is a very annoying sound,” Temeraire complained. “Can you not get the hatchling to stop that?”

“No, I cannot. At least, unlike your offspring, this one will not set fire to and then implode a building with its cry!” Tharkay retorted, his voice somewhat shaken as he jiggled the screaming baby.

Laurence, a trifle giddy from lack of rest, helpfully suggested, “You should try singing to him. Perhaps one of the ferals’ flying songs, in Durzagh?”

Tharkay narrowed his eyes as he answered, “Do you not think we have heard enough unpleasant noises recently?”

\------

Tharkay and Laurence collided in the hall as they ran out of their bedrooms to reach the source of the howling. As they disentangled themselves, Betsy hurried down the attic stairs. She went into the baby’s room, loosening the bodice of her nightgown as she did so. 

In the distance, they heard Temeraire call, “Make it stop soon, please!” Miraculously to the three males, the howling abruptly ceased.

Tharkay, straightening his nightclothes, commented, “I knew she was well qualified for the post.”

\------

“Whatever is that smell, Tenzing?” Laurence enquired in mock innocence as he surveyed the damage: for Tharkay had taken a direct shot. His friend drew himself up with all the dignity of a proper gentleman as he blotted the noxious liquid from his face. For once, Laurence thought, Tharkay was at a complete loss for words. Both of them wondered how they had managed to hire a wet nurse who was all thumbs when it came to changing a diaper.

\------

“It looks impressive; I hope it does not give you too much pain, Tenzing,” Laurence remarked as he tied a slice of raw beef over Tharkay’s black eye. “Remind me, Will,” Tharkay replied, “the next time that I have bathing duty, to apply the soap **after** I put the boy in the basin so I may keep a better grip on his fists.”

“Laurence, may I eat the rest of this beef?” Temeraire asked. “And could we not just strap the hatchling to my harness when I go to the pond to bathe?”

\------

Laurence inspected their handyman Janus’s diaper-work doubtfully, although the knots certainly were well tied. “How fortunate that you have a former mariner in your employ. At least we can be certain that the cloth will not come off in a gale!” Tharkay remarked encouragingly.

\------

When Laurence confessed to George and Lady Allendale that they could do with some advice about changing and bathing the child, his brother laughed harder and longer than Laurence had ever known him to do. His mother gracefully hid her smile behind her teacup; Tharkay nodded politely to acknowledge the humor in their situation. Laurence, of course, blushed.

\------

“Done!” their harness master O’Dea said, buckling the last strap. “Does all lie well?” Tharkay asked wryly.

Temeraire called from the open window, “Laurence, pray don’t shake our hatchling too much when you’re testing the fit!”

Laurence regarded himself and his son in the mirror. As he checked the contraption from the side, he commented drily, “I now better understand how Jane felt in her ninth month – he does give one a substantial belly.” Observing his friend’s new silhouette with the baby strapped to his front, Tharkay started to shake with suppressed laughter.

\------

Laurence wondered irritably why everyone else kept dissolving into laughter over the situation when he himself was so tired that he could almost swear.

\------

It had taken all the energy they had, but Laurence thought that everything looked in fair order for Jane’s first visit. The linen press held stacks of clean cloths: though they had resorted to drying the final batch by draping them on Temeraire. They had maneuvered the baby into his best outfit without major injury to any party involved. Betsy wore a new shawl, and the carrying harness shone from polishing. He and Tharkay had even managed to shave.

Laurence attributed what happened upon Jane’s arrival to his and Tharkay’s exhaustion. The look of barely controlled terror on Tharkay’s face as he gingerly extracted the boy from his cradle and put him into Jane’s arms for her inspection finally pulled Laurence out of his recent irascible mood. He started to chuckle, then laugh, then was whooping when Tharkay and Jane looked at him as if he had gone quite mad. Their expressions made him laugh all the harder.

\------

As they sat around the fire pit outside Temeraire’s new pavilion, Jane rocked the baby in her arms, humming a flying song to him. Tharkay fussed about the pair with blankets, and Temeraire observed the three of them closely, obviously ready to make suggestions about the best way to keep their boy warm.

Laurence smiled to see them all together. This assuredly was not the family he had envisioned almost ten years ago as a young naval captain dreaming of home. But this was the right family for him, and he welcomed this new duty like no other assignment in his life.

Happiness welled up inside him and he again laughed out loud, shaking his head in disbelief at his good fortune. From across the fire, Tharkay and Jane looked back at him fondly before they, too, started to laugh in delight.

  


_And it's home, dearest, home, oh it's home I want to be_  
_Our transport’s sails are hoisted and we’ve set out to sea_  
_Oh the oak and the ash and the bonnie birchen tree_  
_Are all a-growing green in the North country_  
_And we’re home, dearest, home_

  


**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to my beta reader, lilliburlero!
> 
> Novembersmith’s prompt was “Jane is knocked up but has no interest in being a major part of raising the baby and WILL AND THARKAY TAKE OVER. WILL AND THARKAY WITH A BABY. TEMERAIRE THE MOST INTERESTED NURSEMAID. AHHH.” I couldn’t see Jane getting pregnant by accident, so I went a slightly different route at the beginning. 
> 
> Also for Yunitsa, whose pinch hitter’s prompt requested a glimpse into Tharkay and Laurence’s new domestic life. 
> 
> The song lyrics are adapted from “Home, Dearie, Home,” a traditional song also known as “Ambletown.”
> 
> This is my first fic, so helpful feedback is welcome!


End file.
